Twas the night before

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even my spouse

She was cuddled up snug in her blanket with care

Hoping that Santa Claus would soon be there.


OK, so I cheated a little bit. This was taken a couple of days before Christmas Eve. We're actually sitting together tonight watching sappy Christmas movies as I write this.

We had a busy day today and tomorrow we will have a house full of kids and grand kids. I am looking forward to having a great family Christmas this year.

We are both recovering from medical procedures and treatments, but getting better each moment. I remain hopeful that the coming year will bring us better health.

In the meantime we will focus on all the good things that have happened and enjoy being together.

I won't ask Santa for anything else.

RT

The Week that Was!

This week started off OK. Both Vicki and I worked Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday is where it got weird and then shitty.

Wednesday I was scheduled for what I thought would be a PET scan out in East Mesa. The cancer center I use in Chandler didn't have any openings before Christmas and our other option was Glendale. We drove out there Wednesday morning and entered the lobby of the East Valley Branch of Ironwood Cancer Center. The lobby was full of freezing cancer patients. The heat in the lobby wasn't working. The thermometer registered 61 degrees. It may not sound that bad, but it was colder than old people with cancer find comfortable.

We waited and shivered with the rest and finally I said something to the staff at the desk. They said the heat was being fixed but it was still freezing in the lobby when I left 4 hours later. It was cold enough in the lobby that Vicki went to our daughter's salon and waited for me.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention that they ended up doing 2 scans, both a CAT and PET scan which more than doubled the normal time one scan would take. After that we went to lunch and then on to Sonora Quest for blood work for the both of us. It was around 2:30 or 3 by the time we got back home.

We thought that our busy medical day was over, but instead it was just starting. A little before 6 PM Vicki started getting severe pain in her back. Since she was waiting on surgery to remove a kidney stone we rushed her to the hospital and I mean rushed. I had the 300 moving pretty good when I could on the way there.

They good folks at the emergency room at Chandler Regional took her right in and got her on morphine for the pain. After that things slowed down. They took her for a CAT scan a couple of hours later and then a urinalysis to look for infection. 

The urinalysis came back clean  and the CAT scan showed the Kidney stone had moved to the line between her Kidney and Bladder. It was decided between the ER doctor and Vicki's Urologist that she would stay night in an Observation Unit and have a procedure, not quite surgery but they put you out like it is, to break up and remove the stone the next day. We waited past 1 in the morning until they found what they called a room, but was actually just a large cubby with curtains at the front and sides. The patient next to her had her TV on at 2:30 in the morning; not a good environment for sick person.


It turned out that her doctor was the chief of the Urology department and booked in surgery till past 7 PM the next day. I stayed with Vicki till 3 AM and then went home to catch a couple of hours of sleep. I slept till 9 the next morning and went back to the hospital to spend the day with Vicki till she went into surgery. 

The procedure/surgery went well, though the doctor did not find a stone, but scar tissue from a previous surgery some 50 years ago that had caused the blockage. He was able to clear out the line (ureter) and put a stint in to open up the blockage. Unfortunately the stint will have to come out in a month or two. So it looks like she will be back in for more surgery during the first quarter of 2016.
 
She was back in her room by around 10 PM or so. (She really did have a room this time. I had made some comments on the previous night's accommodations to the Unit manager/ Dept Head when she came around) and they moved her the next day. I rewarded the entire dept by going to Sears and getting them a Humongous Box of Whitman's Chocolates. Not even Nurses can resist Chocolate.   

The good news is that she's home tonight. I was able to get her discharged and out the door just past noon today. We are both glad to have this week over.

The better news is that tomorrow we will celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary. Even better, I had my oncologist appointment today to go over the scans and I am done with
Chemo for a while. I have an appointment with my radiation doctor the 29th to see if we can start stereotactic radiation for the 4 small nodes that remain in my lungs.

So... I am looking forward to a great anniversary dinner tomorrow night with my wife and a happy and merry Christmas with kids and grand kids next week.

Here's hoping your Christmas will be as Merry as it can be.

RT

Pre Midnight Ramblings

In case you don't know, there are just 14 shopping days left till Christmas. I know this because I started my shopping today.

My semi-annual trips to the Mall and other stores usually go OK and today was no different. After trooping and stomping up and down the corridors at the local mall, I finally found some of the stuff I needed, thanks to some very helpful sales people. 

Vicki and I are having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year, but I think we'll both come around. 

She is still sick and in addition will be going in for surgery just after the new year.
I am awaiting my next Pet Scan to find out if I have more chemo or radiation.
We are definitely an exciting pair.

Nevertheless, I am looking forward to Christmas and Family and a little joy and celebration to go with the hardships we have endured and continue to endure this year.

I hope your shopping goes as well as mine did. I also hope that you have friends and family to celebrate with this year.

That's about it for ramblings tonight.

RT

Great Support Group

This will just be a short post to thank the people who came to our house yesterday and put up our Christmas Decorations. The Girls helped Vicki with the tree, it looks beautiful by the way, and the boys did the outside.

I supervised and did a little on both the inside and outside, but really the Kids, the 
Grand kid, and our ex son-in-law did all the work. 

So here's thanks to Jamie, Damien, Chris and Brianna for all their help yesterday.

Thanks and thanks some more,

RT

Thanksgiving 2015

Before starting this post I was reading an article on gratitude. A couple of scientists and researchers found that people who have gratitude for their lives, events, circumstance or whatever, tend to  be happy people or at least happier people.

OK, I can go along with that. Which makes me think those first settlers were smart to create a Thanksgiving Day. Maybe we would all be a little happier if we had a Thanksgiving  moment every day. Anyway I know that I have a lot of things for which to be thankful.

The number one thing I am thankful for is Vicki's results from her 5-year MRI. We got the results from her oncologist yesterday. She is not just cancer free, she in now considered cured. It was a great thing to hear.

I am also very thankful for all the family I saw today at our Thanksgiving Outing. My oldest daughter got us a Ramada at Skyline Park out in Mesa. I got to see 8 of our 14 grand kids and lots of nieces, nephews, kids, and cousins. I walked down through the park and marveled at all the different folks celebrating the holiday. It felt good to see people out having fun with their families. That's something some people never get to experience, all Thanksgiving Dinner nightmares aside.

I am thankful as well for the treatment I am receiving and the support from  friends and family. I am also very thankful for the support I get from people at work. That's another thing right there; I am thankful to still be able to work. 

When you think about it there will be a whole lot of things to be thankful for, that deserve your gratitude.  

I won't bore you with any more of mine, there really isn't room on the page. I have had countless blessings in this life and I am grateful for every one. Take a minute and contemplate all the wonderful things in your life.

RT

 

"Hold on a Minute"

Turns out that yesterday was my 5th Chemo treatment and not my 6th as my last post erroneously stated. Even so, this one got me more than any so far.

I didn't go to bed till 3 AM this morning. It took me that long and multiple pills to get the nausea under control enough to attempt sleep. It also helped that by that time of the morning I was pretty damn tired as well.

My daughter Bridgette just came by and picked up Vicki to go get her 5 year MRI at St. Judes in Phoenix. If she gets another clean MRI she we be declared cured, not just cancer free. 

I am sitting in the easy chair, watching Antiques Roadshow, and blogging. The don't call me Mr. Excitement for nothing.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving. We are having a family outing at a Park in Mesa. I should get to see a bunch of folks I haven't seen in ages. 

Have a great Thanksgiving day.

RT

Waiting on 6

I'm watching the Cards tonight and resting up for work tomorrow. Side effects have been manageable this weekend. I haven't had a lot of energy, but what energy I have I believe I've put to good use. 

Vicki came down with a kidney infection on Thursday, which we had confirmed on Saturday when she went to the urgent care a few blocks from our house. I cooked dinner on Friday night and did some minor chores on Saturday. Sunday I had enough energy to do the ironing for both of us, so I feel pretty good about that.

How I will feel in the morning is a whole nother deal. (excuse my hillybillyism)

I have my 6th treatment this coming Friday and I wonder how much it will wear me down. Each treatment has made me more and more tired. It's getting to the point where even 3 days a week will be more than I can go to work. Right now I'm scheduled for 4 days a week, but I haven't made more than 3 days for the past month. 

I'm hoping we can get Vicki healed up by my next treatment. We'll just have to wait and see. 

It just started raining again. We had the roof done last week and I'm hopeful it's holding up. This has been a very wet fall for us here in Phoenix. Climate change?

Hope things are going well for you.

RT